By James Allen.
Everything that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct
result of his own thoughts. In a justly ordered universe, where loss of
equipoise would mean total destruction, individual responsibility must be
absolute. A man's weakness and strength, purity and impurity, are his own, and
not another man's; they are brought about by himself, and not by another; and
they can only be altered by himself, never by another. His condition is also his
own, and not another man's. His suffering and his happiness are evolved from
within. As he thinks, so he is; as he continues to think, so he remains.
A strong man cannot help a weaker unless that weaker is willing to be helped,
and even then the weak man must become strong of himself; he must, by his own
efforts, develop the strength which he admires in another. None but himself can
alter his condition.
It has been usual for men to think and to say, "Many men are slaves because one
is an oppressor; let us hate the oppressor." Now, however, there is amongst an
increasing few a tendency to reverse this judgment, and to say, "One man is an
oppressor because many are slaves; let us despise the slaves."
The truth is that oppressor and slave are co-operators in ignorance, and, while
seeming to afflict each other, are in reality afflicting themselves. A perfect
Knowledge perceives the action of law in the weakness of the oppressed and the
misapplied power of the oppressor; a perfect Love, seeing the suffering, which
both states entail, condemns neither; a perfect Compassion embraces both
oppressor and oppressed.
He who has conquered weakness, and has put away all selfish thoughts, belongs
neither to oppressor nor oppressed. He is free.
A man can only rise, conquer, and achieve by lifting up his thoughts. He can
only remain weak, and abject, and miserable by refusing to lift up his thoughts.
Before a man can achieve anything, even in worldly things, he must lift his
thoughts above slavish animal indulgence. He may not, in order to succeed, give
up all animal behavior and selfishness, by any means; but a portion of it must,
at least, be sacrificed. A man whose first thought is bestial indulgence could
neither think clearly nor plan methodically; he could not find and develop his
latent resources, and would fail in any undertaking. Not having commenced to
manfully control his thoughts, he is not in a position to control affairs and to
adopt serious responsibilities. He is not fit to act independently and stand
alone. But he is limited only by the thoughts, which he chooses.
There can be no progress, no achievement without sacrifice, and a man's worldly
success will be in the measure that he sacrifices his confused animal thoughts,
and fixes his mind on the development of his plans, and the strengthening of his
resolution and self-reliance. And the higher he lifts his thoughts, the more
manly, upright, and righteous he becomes, the greater will be his success, the
more blessed and enduring will be his achievements.
The universe does not favour the greedy, the dishonest, the vicious, although on
the mere surface it may sometimes appear to do so; it helps the honest, the
magnanimous, the virtuous. All the great Teachers of the ages have declared this
in varying forms, and to prove and know it a man has but to persist in making
himself more and more virtuous by lifting up his thoughts.
Intellectual achievements are the result of thought consecrated to the search
for knowledge, or for the beautiful and true in life and nature. Such
achievements may be sometimes connected with vanity and ambition, but they are
not the outcome of those characteristics; they are the natural outgrowth of long
and arduous effort, and of pure and unselfish thoughts.
Spiritual achievements are the consummation of holy aspirations. He who lives
constantly in the conception of noble and lofty thoughts, who dwells upon all
that is pure and unselfish, will, as surely as the sun reaches its zenith and
the moon its full, become wise and noble in character, and rise into a position
of influence and blessedness.
Achievement, of whatever kind, is the crown of effort, the diadem of thought. By
the aid of self-control, resolution, purity, righteousness, and well-directed
thought a man ascends; by the aid of animal behavior, indolence, impurity,
corruption, and confusion of thought a man descends.
A man may rise to high success in the world, and even to lofty altitudes in the
spiritual realm, and again descend into weakness and wretchedness by allowing
arrogant, selfish, and corrupt thoughts to take possession of him.
Victories attained by right thought can only be maintained by watchfulness. Many
give way when success is assured, and rapidly fall back into failure.
All achievements, whether in the business, intellectual, or spiritual world, are
the result of definitely directed thought, are governed by the same law and are
of the same method; the only difference lies in the object of attainment.
He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who would achieve much
must sacrifice much; he who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly.
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This is taken from As A Man Thinketh.
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